Helen Skelton addresses Gorka’s ‘losing face’ after Strictly final

Skelton and Marquez lost out to Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal in the final

Helen Skelton has spoken about Gorka Marquez’s “losing face” after the Strictly Come Dancing final.

Over the weekend, Skelton and her professional dance partner Marquez competed against Fleur East and Vito Coppola, Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu, Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal in the Strictly final.

Yassin and Przystal were crowned the winners of the 20th series.

Skelton, 39, opened up about her disappointment at losing the competition during Monday morning’s episode (19 December) of Lorraine.

“I just wanted to make my kids proud. Every day I’ve been going to work they’d been asking, ‘Are you going to win the Glitterball, mummy?’” said the Countryfile presenter.

Skelton said that while she and Marquez “didn’t quite win”, they did make “memories that will last a lifetime”.

“I wasn’t able to articulate what I wanted to say but ultimately it would have been the best way to say thank you for all the support,” she said.

“If I could bottle all that support, the applause... that would see me through any dark day. It just goes to show what happens when you surround yourself with good people.”

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When the results were announced on the live show, many viewers noticed that Marquez was visibly disappointed and struggled to hide his emotions.

Skelton addressed her partner’s “losing face”, saying: “The thing is, what I love about Gorka and our friendship is, we’re so honest. It’s written all over our faces…

“If his face had said anything other than, ‘I’m disappointed,’ it would have been a disservice. Bless him, he wanted to win it.”

During her time on the BBC reality programme, Skelton opened up about her divorce from husband Richie Myler.

The couple announced their divorce in April after being married for eight years and having three children, with their youngest being just four months old at the time.

Since announcing the divorce, Myler – a rugby player for Leeds Rhinos – is now expecting a baby with girlfriend Stephanie Thirkill, the daughter of club president Andrew Thirkill.

Amidst the breakup, Skelton has remained quiet on the subject but had shared some details about how competing on Strictly is helping her work through her divorce, explaining that she joined to “put a big smile” on her face.